A Special Evening at CIHRS to Commemorate the 67th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba

This year marks the 67th anniversary of the Palestinian nakba, or catastrophe, when forces with the nascent Israeli state dispossessed the Palestinian people, a process that continues to this day.

To commemorate the occasion, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, on May 14 at 6 pm, is organizing a special event, to include a discussion of the ongoing violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories and against Palestinian refugees in various Arab states.

The evening will begin with a screening of the Palestinian documentary film, “Memory of the Cactus.” Written and directed by Hanna Musleh and produced by the Palestinian Haq Foundation, the film took the best documentary prize at the Dubai International Film Festival. The film tells the story of Palestinians from villages around Latrun—Imwas, Yalo, and Beit Nuba—who were dispossessed by the Israeli army in 1967, depicting the suffering etched in the memory of the generation that witnessed Palestinians being expelled and uprooted from their homes in Jerusalem since 1967.

The film will be followed by an open discussion on the rights of the Palestinian, daily Israeli violations of these rights, and Egyptian and international efforts to confront these violations. The CIHRS has invited Dr. Mohammed Khaled al-Azaar, the first consul in the embassy of Palestine and the embassy’s media and cultural officer, and Amr Shalakany, associate professor of law and founding director of the Law & Society Research Unit at The American University in Cairo (AUC). The CIHRS also extended an invitation to the Palestine Affairs Directorate at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. The discussion will be moderated by Mohamed Zaree, the director of the CIHRS Egypt office.

The events will begin promptly at 6 pm with a screening of the 40-minute film, followed by an hour dedicated to remarks by the speakers and an open discussion. The event will take place at the CIHRS office, located at 21 Abd al-Megid al-Ramali Street, next to the Chamber of Commerce in Bab al-Louq, Cairo.